Blockstabilization of peat in road construction

Blocstabilisation de tourbe pour construction de routes

S. Hoikkala, M.Leppanen & H.Tanska- Viatek-YhtiotOy, Espoo, Finland

ABSTRACT: Masstabilization is a new, environmentally friendly soil improvement method where stabilizer is mixed into peat, mud or soft
clay. Masstabilization is carried out by a mixing tool which has been installed on an excavator machine. Mixing is done both in horizontal
and vertical direction so that a homogeneous inforced soil slab is formed due to effect o f stabilizer. Embankments can be founded on
masstabilized soil in the same way as on natural firm soil layers like moraine or gravel. New stabilizer agents, produced as by-products by
industrial processes, can be used as stabilizers instead o f the traditionally used lime and lime-cement mixtures.

RESUME: La stabilisation de masse est une nouvelle methode, respectant l'environnement et ameliorant le sous-sol ou un stabilisant est
melange en tourbe de boue ou d'argile douce. La stabilisation totale est executee par un outil melangeur qui est install^ sur l'excavateur. Le
melange est realise aussi bien horizontalement que verticalement de maniere que la masse penetrant le sous-sol soit homogene afin de le
stabiliser. Les bas-cotes des chaussees peuvent etre stabilises de la meme facon gu'un sol solide de structure comme moraine ou gravier. De
nouveaux agents stabilisateurs, obtenus de sous-produits recycles, peuvent etre utilises comme stabilisateur au lieu de la chaux ou du
melange ciment-chaux traditionnellement utilise.

1 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays road and railway construction in Scandinavia is carried

out more and more often on soil with low bearing capacity,
especially on the coastal areas. Also most o f the new housing
areas are located near city centres, where it has earlier been almost
impossible to construct due to economical and technical problems
from the difficult soil conditions. The traditional solution in
construction on the peat, mud or soft clay areas is to use soil
replacement method. Excavated material is replaced by return
transport by friction materials or blasted rock which have better
bearing capacity properties. For instance approximately
1,000,000 m3 o f soaked, poor quality surplus masses is produced
annually in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The corresponding
quantity o f useless soft soil must be replaced with natural gravel
and blasted rock. Soaking o f poor quality surplus masses can be
regarded as one o f the most significant environmental problems in Figure 1. Masstabilization is carried out at highway 601
construction. Sundsvdgen, M ned, Sweden.
The geotechnical properties o f soft soils can be improved e.g. by
stabilization. Deep stabilization have been used in Scandinavia
since the end o f 1970’s. In deep stabilization strengthened columns EMBANKMENT
are formed by stabilizer agents. A new method for soil improve­
ment is the masstabilization where the whole mass is strengthened
to a homogeneous slab structure which behaves like dry crust.
This method has made the expansion o f application possible even
to peat which has not been exploited earlier.

2 PRINCIPLES OF PEAT STABILIZATION

2.1 Masstabilization method

Masstabilization is a new soil improvement method where

stabilizer is mixed into peat, mud or soft clay. Masstabilization is
carried out by a mixing tool which has been installed on an
excavator machine as shown in Figure 1. Mixing is done both in Figure2. Principle o f masstabilization.
horizontal and vertical direction so that a homogeneous inforced
soil slab is formed due to effect o f stabilizer, Figure 2.
Embankments can be founded on masstabilized soil in the same Masstabilization improves the properties o f the excavated, poor
way as on natural firm soil layers like moraine or gravel. The mi­ quality masses so that instead o f transporting this material to land­
xing tool has been innovated by YIT-YhtymS Oy in Finland. fill it can be used to other construction purposes such as road
Masstabilization can be implemented also by mixing stabilizer structures, filling, noise barriers etc.
agents to soils that have been excavated and lifted to the ground.

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 Masstabilization replaces conventional soil replacement method
in which the soft soil layers are replaced with friction material like
gravel or blasted rock. By using this new environmentally friendly
technology the need for natural stone- or crushed soil materials
can significantly be decreased. Moreover, the amount o f surplus
masses is minimized. This means that valuable gravel ridges and
rock areas can be saved and also load on soil dumps is reduced. In
addition, traffic- and pollution problems from transportation o f
filling materials and soak surplus masses from excavations can be
avoided.
2.2 Stabilization testing and new more effective stabilizers fo r
peat stabilization
Geotechnical properties o f stabilized peat depend on physical and
chemical properties o f natural peat deposit and properties o f
stabilizer. The most important geotechnical properties o f peat
which have effect on stabilization are natural water content,
humification grade and pH.
To assure the safety and the quality o f the final stabilized
product, a number o f stabilization tests must be carried out in
laboratory beforehand to find out the most suitable stabilizers, to
optimize the stabilizer amount and to clear strength-deformation
properties o f the stabilized soil for the actual case. A new
laboratory testing procedure has been introduced for peat soils so
that the actual loading conditions in the field can be simulated in
laboratory (Tielaitos, 1993).
New stabilizer agents, produced as by-products by industrial
processes, can be used as stabilizers for deep- and masstabilization
instead o f the traditionally used lime and lime-cement mixtures. In
this way the stabilizer agent technology meets the principles o f the
environmentally friendly and sustainable development. This means
also a new application area for the industrial by-products. Stabi­
lizer agents produced e.g. by Lohja Rudus are stabilizers which
can be separately tailor-made for each stabilization and soil type.
The stabilizer agents are made o f from different activators
(cement, lime, aggregates) and from the industrial by-products (fly
ashes, end products o f sulphur removal process, blast-furnace
slag).
Much higher strength results can be obtained by using these
stabilizers than by traditional agents used in stabilization. This
means remarkable cost-savings. Stabilizer agents as by-products
are also much cheaper per ton than the traditional lime-cement
stabilizer agent. The share o f stabilizer agent from total mass­
tabilization costs is approximately 60...70 %. In order to be
competitive it is important to minimize the stabilizer agent costs in
masstabilization.
New stabilizer agents can also be applied to the stabilization o f
organic soil and peat materials which have been difficult to stabili­
ze earlier. An example o f the results o f stabilization tests with peat
is presented in Figure 3.
120
14 days 30 days
Testing time
D Lohja 1 150 kg/m3 ■ Lohja 1 300 kg/m3 □ Lohja 2 150 kg/m3 □ Lohja 3 150 kg/m3
■ Lohja 3 300 kg/m3 □ Lohja 4 150 kg/m3
Figure 3. A n example o f stabilization test results with peat.
Highway 601 SundsvCtgen, Rirneh, Sweden.
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3. ROAD STABILIZATION
3.1 Case Veittostensuo
3.1.1 Pilot protect fo r peat stabilization
Stabilization o f peat has been used for the first time under trial
embankment in Veittostensuo along highway 12 in south-east Fin­
land. The Finnish Road Administration started a research project
in 1992 with an objective to develop a suitable and economical
method for peat stabilization. Viatek has been responsible for
design and development o f peat stabilization methods during the
project. In the first stage o f the project a number o f stabilization
tests were made in Viatek/SGT's soil laboratory to find out the
most suitable stabilizing agents and to optimize the amount o f the
stabilizer for peat and clay. The measured shear strengths of
stabilized samples increased by a factor o f 10-40 in clay and 10-20
in peat. Also deformation properties o f stabilized peat changed
radically.
The results o f the stabilization tests in laboratory were very
encouraging. Therefore a full scale trial embankment was
constructed in spring 1993. The stabilization o f peat was done
with masstabilization by making lamel blocks (500 m3) and
stabilization o f clay was done by using normal columns (2000 m)
as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. The trial embankment in Veittostensuo.
Masstabilization o f peat and column stabilization o f clay.
3.1.2 Strength an d settlement behaviour o f the trial embankment
The strength development and deformation properties o f stabilized
soil have been controlled four years after construction. The natural
unconfined shear strength o f peat in Veittostensuo was 5. .. 10 kPa
and the objective for shear strength in stabilized peat was 50 kPa.
The measured shear strength values have varied between 40... 150
kPa 30 days after stabilizing.
The height o f the embankment has been raised three times since
construction (precompaction embankment h=0.5 m and heights
corresponding to final highway embankments h=1.5 m and h=2.5
m). The settlements o f the test embankment have been quite small,
300...400 mm depending on the corresponding embankment
height as shown in Figure 5. The measured settlement values
correspond quite well to the estimated values from laboratory
tests (5... 15 % o f the thickness o f the stabilized peat layer). After
reducing the embankment height from 2,5 to 1,5 m (simulation of
taking away preloading embankment) the settlements have
practically stopped.
3.1.3 Physical properties o f stabilized peat at Veittostensuo
Mixing stabilizer into peat changes its volume weight. The
magnitude o f weight increase depends naturally on the amount of
stabilizer but also on compression o f stabilized soil due to
preloading during strengthening. According to empirical
experience from laboratory testing and field tests at Veittostensuo
the increase o f volume weight o f stabilized peat is o f an order of
1.3...1.6 times higher than natural volume weight. Natural water
content o f peat varies normally w=500...1000 % (Carlsten, 1988,
 VEITTOSTENSUO TEST EMBANKMENT
Time t, days
200 4 00 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Settlem ent
plates :

- Plate 1
-P la te 2
c - Plate 3
Oi -P la te 4
E
o - Plate 5
5 - Plate 6
V
w

h=0 5 m E m bankm ent height h=1.5 m h=2.5 m h=1.5 m

-------------------------- ► <

Figure 5. The settlement observations at Veittostensuo trial

embankment.

Helenelund, 1980). Measured water contents in stabilized peat arc

normally an order o f w=50...200 %.
The thermal conductivity o f stabilized peat is o f an order at
which it can be expected to influence the frost penetration o f the
whole road structure. The measured thermal conductivity factors
have been o f an order X=0.2...0.6 W/Km, which correspond to
thermal conductivity o f natural peats (Carlsten, 1988, Helenelund,
1980). This insulating effect can be taken into account at the frost
dimensioning stage (Tielaitos, 1995).
Water permeability o f column stabilized clay is often presumed
as 100... 1000 times higher than permeability o f natural clay. Peat
stabilization with cement based stabilizers causes on the contrary
reducing o f permeability. Results at Veittostensuo (Tielaitos 1995)
show that permeability o f natural peat k=10'5 m/s has been
reduced to an order o f k ^ O -6...!©'8 m/s.

3.2 Case Highway 601 Sundsvtigen at Rdned

At LuleS in northern Sweden, probably as the first project in the

world, a road was constructed on stabilized peat in summer 1995.
Stabilization was carried out in connection with road renovation
works (highway 601 Sundsvigen). The total length o f the project
is about 5 km o f which about 700 m was stabilized as shown in
Figures 1 and 2. The total stabilization volume was about 10000
m and the construction costs about 2,2 millions SEK.
The measured shear strengths o f stabilized peat (30 days) were
40 .185 kPa and objective value o f 50 kPa could be obtained
clearly. The measured settlements o f embankment have been
50. ..200 mm during six months after stabilization. Nearly all o f the
settlements have taken place during preloading stage before
pavement installation.
4 RAILWAYS
The first railway embankment with masstabilization method was
constructed in Sweden during spring 1996 between Skyttorp-
Orbyhus north o f Stockholm. The first effort was made under a
temporary embankment which would work only for few months
during construction works for a new double rail embankment to
ihe location o f the existing railway embankment. The existing
embankment was constructed about sixty years ago to soft peat
ground without any soil improvement.
Because o f good experiences with the temporary embankment, it
was decided to use the new method also under the actual double
rail. The existing embankment was excavated away before
stabilization. Stabilization was now made using a bit different
method, so called cell stabilization method, where stabilization in
peat was done with large diameter columns installed within each
other as shown in Figure 6. Stabilization in clay was done with
normal columns. Due to stability problems during construction
works the columns were installed in short sections to ensure
enough strengthening time for cell columns. The used cell
stabilization method was also very suitable at this site because o f
big stones from old filling recovered in peat would have made
stabilization very difficult with traditional masstabilization method.
The settlement observations o f the constructed embankment are
shown in Figure 7. Settlement observations have also been done
after final embankment raise and after installation o f double rail.
The results in Figure 7 shows, that embankment has approved to
behave quite well.
Another railway project has been done during autumn 1996 at
Jom-Lidlund in Sweden, where stabilization o f peat was done just
beside the existing rail and thus the expensive sheet pile wall and
soil replacing method could be avoided.

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 Skyttorp-Orbyhus, The settlement obervations, 31.7.-6.11.1996
Time, days
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-20

0 J.j
*
20

40 x \
E \
E 60
V
/
A

/
/
| 80

I 100
to 260,12
120
-------- 27 260,3
140 - - * - - u zou, easi
- • + - 2 7 260, west
160

180
Figure 7. Settlement observations at Skyttorp-Orbyhus.

5. OTHER APPLICATIONS Sfifstrttm, L., Axelsson, K. 1996. Torvoch gyttja stabiliseras.

In Finland masstabilization has been used not only in peat but also
to increase strength o f clay and mud, for example in Ringroad III,
Pikku-Huopalahti residential area in Helsinki (stabilization o f mud
8000 m3) and Leppavaara in Espoo.
There are also continuously arising some new application areas.
Studies have been made to use masstabilization method for
manufacturing o f water impermeable wall structures for example
at swamp areas nearby road excavations. A pilot project is also
being done at Hamina harbour to stabilize mud with very high
water content from suction dredging.
Cementa NR 3/96.
Tielaitos 1993. Deep Stabilization at Veittostensuo. Research
Report (in Finnish). Tielaitoksen selvityksia 81/1993. TIEL
3200205. 87 p.
Tielaitos 1995. Assessment o f the quality andfunctioning o f a test
structure on the mire o f Veittostensuo (in Finnish). Tielaitoksen
selvityksia 54/1995. TIEL 3200330. 51 p.
Viatek 1994. Blockstabilisering. 4 p.
Vagverket 1995. Masstabilisering, Ldgesrapport. Statens
geotekniska institut, Linkdping. 15 p.

6. CONCLUSIONS

The future o f the masstabilization method looks quite

encouraging. The results from pilot projects show clearly that it is
possible to construct embankments with high quality (sufficient
stability and minor settlements afterwards) to moderate price.
Because o f the environmental factors the new method is ideal for
road and railway construction and streets in urban areas where soil
replacement causes inconvenience. The active research to develop
both more effective stabilizers and mixing tools creates new
applications and improves competitiveness o f this environmentally
friendly technology.

7 REFERENCES

Ahonen, M. 1993. M echanical Properties o f Stabilized Peat.

Diploma Thesis (in Finnish), university o f Oulu. 61 p.
Carlsten, P. 1988. Peat. Geotechnical Properties and Up-to-Date
M ethods o f Design and Construction. Linkdping 1988, Statens
geotekniska institut, State-of-the-Art-Report. 35 p.
Helenelund, K.V. 1980. Geotechnical Properties and Behaviour
o f Finnish Peat. VTT Symposium 1980. pp. 85... 107.
Hoikkala, S. 1993. Stabilization o f p eat an d clay in Veittostensuo.
YGEC 1993. 3 p.
Rogbeck, Y. 1996. Masstabilisering, Forskning och
utvecklingsplan 1996-2000. Svensk Djupstabilisering. SGI.
Linkdping.

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